Scrub Club®

Did you know that some viruses and bacteria can live from 20 minutes to more than two hours on surfaces like cafeteria tables, door knobs and school desks? Each year more than 164 million school days are lost due to illness. But there is one easy thing that parents, teachers and kids can do to keep from getting sick and spreading illness – practice proper handwashing.

Scrub Club® to the Rescue

That’s why NSF International created the Scrub Club® – to raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing and ultimately improve the health of children and reduce sick days in school.

The Scrub Club® program is a fun, interactive and educational website (scrubclub.org) that teaches children the proper way to wash their hands. The site consists of interactive games, downloadable activities for kids and educational materials for teachers and parents.

Cast of Characters

The Scrub Club® is a group of seven kids and Ship-Shape – the mysterious leader who watches over the hands of the world’s children from his Bubble telescope. They all join forces to fight off harmful germs and bacteria, teaching children about proper handwashing along the way. Each of the Scrub Club® kids represents one of the six steps of the handwashing process - Hot Shot and Chill combine to make the warm water essential for proper hand washing, Squeaks turns into various forms of soap, Taki becomes a clock that counts down the required 20 seconds for proper hand washing, Scruff reminds kids to clean around their nails, Tank turns into a sink to rinse away the germs and P.T. transforms into paper towels. Meet Hot Shot, Chill and the rest of the gang.

The cornerstone of the website is a webisode entitled "The Good, the BAC and the Ugly," which features The Partnership for Food Safety Education’s character BAC® (from its Fight BAC!® public education campaign) along with his sidekick Sal Monella in a wild west-themed adventure.